WHAT ARE YOU READING?

New year, new group, new reading goals...

In some cultures, the holidays continue well into January. In some cultures, the year start at a different time and the end of December is not really very festive. Regardless of how your holiday season runs, I hope you had a relaxing end of the year, managed to finish what you wanted to finish and are ready for new adventures.

So while you are settling into the new group, why don't you come over and tell us how your reading year starts - do you start with a fresh book or do you just continue on with one started last year. And don't forget to visit the thread often to tell everyone what you are up to reading-wise :)

I try to use the holiday season as a time to reflect on what I have been reading and if I want to be more intentional about expanding into different genres or taking on a classic that I have always wanted to read. I was working on reading all the books that are mentioned in the book Migrant Aesthetics: Contemporary Fiction, Global Migration, and the Limits of Empathy in 2024, but I only made it about halfway through so I will be continuing that goal in 2025. Some of my favorite books of the year came from that list like Lost Children Archive and The Lazarus Project. And I am currently reading When the Emperor Was Divine from that list and loving it. The descriptions are beautiful and the story just sweeps you in. When I finish that book list, I am hoping to find another work of literary analysis that I can use as a guide to make a list of books that I might not discover on my own.

I certainly won't drop a book just because the new year starts...I do _try_ to finish a book on December 31st so I can start a new one on January 1, but I'm likely to still be reading my current series then. So not much of a change. Currently reading The Case Files of Henri Davenforth by Honor Raconteur - a fun series, it's a portal fantasy crossed with police procedurals (with magic). And talking almost-cats. And PTSD, and dealing (more or less realistically) with settling into a new world...good story, great characters, very slow-burn romance (he suggested courting in book 4 or 5). This is a reread...possibly a third or fourth reread, it's a great series and I always find something new.

I don't normally start a new year with a new book but maybe I will start a new tradition this year 🙂.

Now that I've finished what should be my final book of 2024, The People's Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine by Ricardo Nuila, MD, I can set my sights on 2025. I'll continue reading The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese, an epic multigenerational novel set mainly in India during the first ¾ of the 20th century which is absolutely superb, and I'll start South to a Very Old Place by Albert Murray, one of the six books contained in the Library of America edition Albert Murray: Collected Essays and Memoirs that I intend to finish this year. Murray was born in Alabama in 1913, and in South to a Very Old Place he revisits major Southern cities that are newly integrated in the late 1960s and compares them to the Jim Crow South of his earlier years.

ETA: On second thought, and after reading the Prologue to South to a Very Old Place, I think I'll read The Omni-Americans, the first book in the Library of America collection, and then read South to a Very Old Place.

>2 teatreetiffany: what list is this? And I adore Lost Children Archive. Wonderful, powerful novel

I plan to finish two books I'm currently reading before the end of the year, which mean some marathon reading this weekend -- Murder on the Orient Express and Psychology of Intelligence Analysis by Richards J. Heuer. But I'll carry over two other books I started in 2024 and want to finish -- Unbound: How Eight Technologies Made Us Human by Richard L. Currier and The Comanche Kid by James Robert Daniels.

>7 janoorani24: BB (book bullet) for Unbound - sounds fascinating.

I am reading This is Happiness by Niall Williams. The prose is stunning but the plot is very slow- in fact I am reading this novel for the language.

I neglected this thread criminally in 2024 and will make more of an effort in 2025.
I am currently reading Silenced by Kristina Ohlsson.

So, for Christmas Eve (Jólabókaflód) I bought myself one of Strand Books "blind date with a book". I could have gone with a climate-fiction book recommended by Obama, but how could I not choose one with the blurb "You gave birth to what!?" (I assumed it was one of the novels about Mary Toft that were popular a few years back). Thus, I read The Unmothers, a very strange, fine enough debut novel. I don't know if the story made any sense, or if it needed too. It never felt tedious.

Then I was back on track with Burmese Days with it's unpleasant characters and too well-described living conditions. Followed by the more sparse, dual time-line of Land of Snow and Ashes which was lovely, but the reveal wasn't all that shocking or revealing. Given the wartime setting and all the atrocities it could have encompassed...

Finally, I finished All for Nothing this morning. Quite well-written, at least that is what I assume, given how irritated I was with the characters and trying to convince them to get going much sooner than they did.

I'm usually pretty poor at keeping up with this thread, but whilst I've time on my hands this week I can say that I'm reading The Bell by Iris Murdoch. I'm only about 50 pages in, but already am muttering to myself 'how does she do it - her writing is always so good'.

I'm finishing up three books for 2024:
Six Geese A-Slaying - "holiday" book for a monthly genre challenge. Audiobook, on the last disk. Will finish it tonight.
The Body in the Transept - needed one more "B" title for my annual "Pyramid Goals" and it's also a holiday book, set at Christmastime. 1st of series, new to me, and liking it very much, so I'll be continuing the series. Cozy mystery, the protagonist is 50-something, has a cat Esmeralda (Emmy) who is featured quite prominently, so a nice way to kick off my "Crazy Cat Lady" year. 57 pages left, so I'll finish it tonight.
That leaves one more book for my Pyramid Goals - a leftover from last year, that I still haven't managed to finish. I do like the book, it just kept getting postponed!
Queen By Right - historical fiction about Cecily Neville. I have some 300+ pages to go. I'll give it a good shot tonight, and try to finish it tomorrow, still counting it for 2024.... (a slight fudge)

My first official book of 2025 will be
Good As Goldie - the newest book in the Breaking Cat News collection of comics. I bought it a month or so ago, but I've been saving it for New Year's Day!

I am reading Courting India: Seventeenth-Century England, Mughal India, and the Origins of Empire by Nandini Das, which I started at the end of last year. It's absolutely fascinating: she's built such a complex narrative out of the historical data: itemised shopping lists, crew voyage rosters - and tied it in to the literature and writing of the period. It's a close look at the English-Indian encounter that produced the colonial Indian state. I have to say, it took me a while to get into it, but I'm enjoying it now.

The other carryover I have from 2024 is Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire, an SFF novel which follows a younger ambassador from an outer region to the capital of the empire. She carries in her head an 'imago' which is a copy of the consciousness of the former ambassador, who died under mysterious circumstances. It's a combined science-fiction/mystery novel, which is right up my alley. I'm enjoying it very much.

I was reading A Destiny of Dragons but got a bit tired of being in the head of a sex obsessed 21 year old, so I started Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries which couldn’t be more different in terms of MC and writing style. Too soon to say if I will like it or not.

I’ve carried Olive Kitteridge over into the new year. I’ll finish it today, and then I think I’ll go on to a Rose Tremain library book, Absolutely and Forever.

I generally do finish off books for the end of the year - I tend to read short books over the Christmas period, so it's quite easy tying up loose ends before for the year end. As this year, I do sometimes start the first book of the New Year a day or so early.
So - first book of the year is The Scapegoat by Lucy Hughes-Hallett, a biography of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, favourite of James I, later assassinated, and featured in The Three Musketeers.

>16 rachbxl: oh I read Tremain ages ago, loved restoration and music and silence For some reason stopped there. have you read others of hers? This one sounds overy romancy, are the others as well?

>18 cindydavid4: Exactly the same here, I loved Restoration and Music and Silence years ago, and more recently the fabulous The Gustav Sonata, but Tremain isn't a writer I seek out for some reason. I just happened to see Absolutely and Forever, which I hadn't heard of and know nothing about, in the library the other day. I'm consciously trying to read more by authors whose work I've enjoyed in the past but then forgotten about, so I brought it home.

I finished The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese earlier this morning, a multigenerational epic novel set in 20th century India which was absolutely fantastic. Next up is Children of the Ghetto: My Name Is Adam by Elias Khoury, a novel about a Palestinian family who is displaced, exiled and suffers great hardships after the Nakba in 1948.

oh, lemme know how that goes!

>16 rachbxl: my last book of 2024 was a reread of Olive Kitteridge and I loved her as much the second time. I’ve got Olive, Again borrowed to read very soon.

I have two books continuing over from 2024. Old God's Time which is a beautifully written book about a really horrible subject, and Versailles: A Biography of a palace which is an enjoyable exploration of French history during Louis XIV-XVI focused around the palace.

>21 cindydavid4: Will do!

>22 raidergirl3: Me too, I've borrowed Olive, Again as well and am planning to read it in the next few days. I haven't read that one before though - have you?

I've carried over Signs of Life: To the Ends of the Earth with a Doctor, re-picked up Perhaps The Stars, and started new today Tom Lake.

I continued The Children’s Book this morning. I’ll be reading it and Piers Plowman for a while yet. On audio, Our Evenings will await my commute tomorrow morning. I’m 2 hours in (out of 16)

I've started The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton on audio and I'm reading Murder Most Actual by Alexis Hall in print, along with a poem-a-day or so from Poems from the Edge of Extinction: An Anthology of Poetry in Endangered Languages.

just returned from our local indies 25% off everything in the store New Years Day sale. Lots of fun; got me two books Iwas aiming for: martyr andthere are rivers in the sky also bought some game books for david. I could have bought more but Im inthe middle of several books and just needed to stop. but saw lots of people I knew, and had a fun time just being there with other bibliofiles

Finished my library book at 5:04 this AM and am done with the Rejuvenated Real Life Book Club December/January book, so I am now down to the re-read of In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick, Volume One of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Deception on His Mind by Elizabeth George and George Sand by Curtis Cate. The Decline and Fall is a long term project, of course and the George Sand bio is pretty massive and annoying at times (not the writing but the subject) so I am really tempted to begin another. But - trying to be a sensible person - I will try to wait the three days that remain until the next book club meeting when another book will be chosen.

But I really, really, really want to start another now. Bad Charlotte!

>14 rasdhar: BB for Courting India - not sure why you listed it by its subtitle, but it did pull me in. My library had it, fortunately.

>30 jjmcgaffey: Oh, sorry about that. I've corrected it. I think I made a mistake while copying and pasting the title out from my own notes.

I finished my first read of the year Good as Goldie a comics collection about cats - #8 in the series. I adore them. Every time a new one is out it is an automatic purchase for me!

Had to carry over Queen by Right from 2024. Found another book I had read that I could count as a "leftover" to complete all of my 2024 challenges - a feat so rare that I don't know if I've ever done it before! So the pressure is off that one, but I don't dare let it slide into stalled status again, so I intend to read at least a few pages every day until it is done.

On Kindle (I always have several books going at once in different formats - this one is my bedtime reading book...) I have started Midwinter's Tail and on audio (for in the car listening) I have started Gingerbread. For non-fiction, I will be starting The Celtic Gods: Comets in Irish Mythology tonight. I'll piece it out at about 12 pages a day. It isn't a very long book.

Then I have an ILL book that needs to go back soon. The Lost Words. It's short - mostly paintings and poems. I'll start and finish it tomorrow.

>24 rachbxl: Yes, i read it in 2019, and loved it. I'm a big Olive fan. As soon as i finish my current read which is about to expire off my phone.

Finished the 2nd of the The Civil War: A Narrative epic triology for a second time. On my second read-through of Shelby Foote’s The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume 2, I’m even more struck by the vivid storytelling and nuanced exploration of critical battles. Foote’s romanticized depiction of Confederate leaders and his subdued treatment of slavery’s role remain noticeable, making this re-reading both engaging and thought-provoking.

Having trouble finding a book to settle down with, which is somewhat unusual, but there is lots going on elsewhere. This morning I committed to Maggot by John Fowles, which looks like it may work.

Greetings everyone! I've mentioned this elsewhere on CR, I know, but I have dual traditions for how I start my reading year. The first book I start in a calendar year is the next book in my current twice-a-year read-through of the novels of Isaac B. Singer in their order of publishing. I'm up to Enemies, a Love Story. The second is this year's book in an ongoing tradition that my wife and I share: we each give the other whatever book was our favorite from the year before (that we think the other would enjoy). So this year my wife gave me The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka to read. That will be my second book after the Singer. The book I gave my wife to read is The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.

But the Singer is the first book I'll start in 2025. Since I finished Look Homeward, Angel with two days to spare in 2024, I immediately jumped into The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World by Maya Jasanoff, first published in 2017. It's excellent and I'm already about 60% through it.

>5 kidzdoc: Thanks for description of South to a Very Old Place, Darryl. That's going on my "short" TBR list (currently around 100 books).

>11 ELiz_M: I loved All for Nothing. I shared your irritation at the characters' self-denial of the danger they were in, but such is human nature.

>17 Willoyd: So - first book of the year is The Scapegoat by Lucy Hughes-Hallett, a biography of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, favourite of James I, later assassinated, and featured in The Three Musketeers.
To which I've now added West of Rehoboth by Alexs D. Pate, my Tour of the USA book for Delaware. I'm really enjoying the Hughes-Hallett, but I'm finding I can read it only in small does - 30-40 pages at a time, with so much to absorb - so need something else (fiction as can't be reading two non-fictions at the same time) to oil the wheels. A promising start.

I've gone off-plan (already!) to start Jasper Cliff which I'm hoping to finish before a meet the author event on Tuesday.

>39 rhian_of_oz: I’ve gone off-plan too! Last night I started War and Peace on a whim (the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation). I may be off-plan for a while. (Dan, you suggested old books - now look! :-) )

I'm reading the 3rd book in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series, The Kill. It has grabbed me right away.

I'm continuing with Versailles: A Biography of the Palace in preparation for a trip to Paris (and Versailles) in a month.

And I'm listening to To Kill a Mockingbird. This is a favorite of mine that I've already read at least twice, but my son is reading it at school so I thought listening to it while he's reading and discussing it at school would be fun.

>40 rachbxl: old and bold! Lovely. A book i really really want to/need to read. (But it takes a big whim)

>41 japaul22: what great set of books to begin the year with

>40 rachbxl: >42 dchaikin:
Fabulous book - have read it twice now, and am due a reread soon!

The year started with too much fiction so now I'm on Never Had it So Good: A History of Britain from Suez to the Beatles by Dominic Sandbrook.

>44 mabith: sounds fun

Starting off with Erdrich's The Master Butcher's Singing Club and James McBride's Kill'em and Leave. I'm getting close to reading both authors' catalogs (well, I haven't read Erdrich's YA fiction yet but that might have to be next year's list.). While there's not a lot in common, as far as subject matter, both have provided some of my most memorable characters, which is often the main consideration.

>42 dchaikin:, >43 Willoyd: I started War and Peace about 15 years ago and was surprised by how accessible it is and how enjoyable…but after about 400 pages I left it at my Dad’s house in France. Had I known how long it was going to take to get it back I’d have bought another copy! Instead I hung on, desperate to get it back so I could carry on with it, but for one reason and another it took ages and by the time I got my hands on it again I didn’t remember enough to pick up where I’d left off so I abandoned it, always with the idea of trying again some time. And here we are, rather unexpectedly. Of course I’m not very far in but I’m enjoying it just as much this time.

>47 rachbxl: that’s a little funny. Glad you’re having a second go.

I've read War and Peace twice, once as a teenager and once about 15 years ago. When I read it as a teenager I mostly skimmed over the war parts, but enjoyed the love story/family aspect. As an adult I enjoyed the whole thing. I had set a goal to read 15-25 pages everyday, but often found myself reading more.

I was very proud of myself for reading War and Peace in junior high and could not figure out why it was thought to be such a challenge. Why, I knocked that puppy off in about two weeks! I am ashamed to confess that it was years later that I noticed that i'd read the abridged version. (And it must have been the most massively abridged version ever.) Dummy!

Have just taken up The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab - the February choice for the Rejuvenated Real Life Book Club. It's my choice for the RRLBC and a re-read.

>50 Fourpawz2: that’s funny. And still impressive for junior high

>49 arubabookwoman: I read War and Peace in my early twenties, and only managed to finish it because I had nothing else to read at the time, and by skipping all the political commentary and military theory. Some day I should read the whole of it. Like you, I did enjoy the love story and family parts.

Coincidentally Murder After Christmas became available a few days ago, so I have started that as it makes a nice counterpoint to The Idiot.

I think I found a dud in the Cadfaels series: the rose rent starts out great till theres a murder and disappearance, with the actual murderer wanting to help solve it throwing out all sorts of fake hints that the formerly intelligent monks fell for. it was also way too long. that bring said I rank it a 4*

nah, I reread the last part and all is we Another 5

I really didn't need another book to start, but I found First Knight on Archive.org so I started it, and next thing I know I've read 74 pages....

ok taking a break from the monk mystery fest is the man in the red coatafter five pages, I realized this may be the funniest booko of the year Its from 2020 How'd I miss this?

>55 WelshBookworm: oh I do love her books. you realize of course you are now going to need to read the rest of the book in that series. Her books consume you. enjoy

I had been hiding from the laptop for the last 5 days (and writing from the phone is annoying) and I finally set my thread today and added the reviews for the 3 books I finished: one very weird dystopian novel (An Earthquake Is a Shaking of the Surface of the Earth by Anna Moschovakis, a non-fiction book which managed to annoy me (The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates) and a lighthearted fantasy novella/short novel (Servant Mage by Kate Elliott).

I also managed to read some stories but as all are from the same magazine (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January-February 2025), they are not due for a review yet. Meanwhile, I am working through John le Carré 's first 3 novels with Three Complete Novels: Call for the Dead / A Murder of Quality / The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (the first 2 novels are rereads and I am enjoying them more than I expected) and I am reading a chapter a day from Sketches by Boz.

I've finished my first book of the year, The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World by Maya Jasanoff, first published in 2017. What Jasanoff has done is provide a biography of Conrad, revealing the important episodes/periods of his life that so strongly informed his writing. Jasanoff weaves these all skillfully with deep dives into four of Conrad's major works: The Secret Agent, Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness, and Nostromo. She also explores in depth the historical contexts of these works. Jasanoff is an excellent writer, and her prose flows beautifully throughout this volume. Also, the book profits significantly from Jasanoff's frequent quoting from Conrad's letters, journals and memoirs that provide a greater depth of understanding of Conrad's own experiences, opinions and insights, both good and, from our perspective, frustrating and lamentable.

One important warning: in her descriptions of the four novels mentioned, and of others of Conrad's works, Jasanoff does not shy away from plot spoilers. Other than that, I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Joseph Conrad and the world he lived in and wrote about.

My longer review is posted on my Club Read thread.

Next up for me will be a continuation of my twice-per-year read through of the novels of Isaac B. Singer, in order of publication. I'm now up to Enemies, a Love Story, first published serially in Yiddish in the Jewish Daily Forward in 1966. The English translation was published in novel form in 1972.

For my next nonfiction book, I finally took David McCullough's The Path Between the Seas book about the formation of the Panama Canal.

>60 japaul22: My mom just read that book after taking a trip through the canal.

>60 japaul22: I really enjoyed that one, hope you do as well!

>16 rachbxl: I just finished Olive, Again. Waiting for Abide By Me. Presently reading The Last Supper by Rachel Cusk

Although it’s freezing here in NY, I decided to get back into reading with a beach book - John Mars’ The Passengers. Mars is not a great writer but has interesting ideas on how advances in tech can have ridiculous effects on western life. Better than his The One , The Passengers takes us on a trip in both senses of the word.

>63 stefepaul: what did you think of Olive, Again? I have it from the library at the moment but not sure I’ll be able to read it before it’s due back. I have a library hold on Abide with me too but I’m months from the front of the queue. But that’s ok, since I’ve now swerved into War and Peace (I’m in the first war part now, enjoying it more than last time, when I liked the home/family/social bits but not the military parts).

I’ve been knocking some books off my e-reader while on my trip: The Paris Assignment by Rhys Bowen, The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare, and Journey to the Heartland by Xiaolong Huang. I’m now engrossed in How to Say Babylon, a memoir about poet Safiya Sinclair’s childhood with a strict Rastafarian father.

I’m reading The Wren the Wren by Anne Enright because I really liked the first 🎧 3 minutes and also because it’s been popping up for yonks as a suggestion. Worried that the blurb suggests it’s about a multigenerational family and has time jumps.

I finished my doorstop history book and now I'm starting Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry.

So, I finally read the first book for 2025 Silenced, which was very exciting. Now I'm reading The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, which I snapped up as someone's BB, only I can't remember who 🙈.

I'm reading an essay collection, Happier Far, by a friend, Diane Mehta. I read her last poetry collection, Tiny Extravaganzas, which was really language-heavy and complex in a good way. This is only slightly less so—I'm not always a fan of autobiographical writing, but this is twisty and interesting.

In addition to The Idiot and Hood Feminism, a hold came in at the library so I am also reading The Story of Art Without Men, but since none of these are gripping books, I am half looking for something more engrossing that can be read in highly distracting environments...

>71 ELiz_M: Looking at your library, The Woman from Uruguay might do the trick.

Well, I made the mistake of going to the library to drop off some overdue books, and of course walked out with more to read. So my plan to finish Unbound: How Eight Technologies Made Us Human by Richard L. Currier and The Comanche Kid by James Robert Daniels, both begun way back in mid-2024, are way off track. Now I am reading Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky and The Radium Girls by Kate Moore.

Something fun for the weekend, A Grave Robbery. Which on the face of it doesn't seem like 'fun' is the right word 🙂.

>71 ELiz_M: i can try to help - go read Judy Dench on her Shakespearean career - Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent

>72 kjuliff: thanks for the recommendation
>75 dchaikin: I read that last month!

Maybe not the best choice for light reading, but I have also started The Discomfort of Evening.

I'm about 50 pages in with Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst and I'm really enjoying it so far.

>76 ELiz_M: That’s an understatement. But a great book. I read it when it came out and was so impressed I bought his next book, My Heavenly Favorite which is even darker and I could not finish it.

I finished the excellent memoir, How to Say Babylon, and a short story by Lee Child called Eleven Numbers. I'm now a third of the way through Intimacies by Katie Kitamura and am hooked.

I'm just finishing up The Voyage Home by Pat Barker, and just starting up a couple of non-fiction reads, An Atlas of Extinct Countries by Gideon Defoe and Impossible, Possible and Improbable by John Gribbin.

havent been around awhile due to some damage from winds and some yard clean up plus power outage and no internet. All back to normal now. Had a quiet birthday, and spend it finishing the fifth Cadfael Omnibus,my first read of 2025 and discovered what has to be my all time Cadfael story the potter's field the twists and turns and the ending zipped by at neck breaking speed. nice birthday present!

need to catch up but hoping that those in the LA vacinity are safe. I cant even imagine what that must be like. Way too many such storms, more proof of global warning. and with trump, little hope of change

>46 DAGray08: loved that book (MBSC) its been a while but a very satisfying read

>79 labfs39: I really enjoyed Intimacies (despite raising the odd eyebrow at the interpreter’s working conditions).

Last night I finished the excellent novel Enemies, a Love Story by Isaac B. Singer about Holocaust survivors in post-war New York City. You can find my review on my Club Read thread.

Next up for me will be The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka.

Last night I finished the excellent novel Enemies, a Love Story by Isaac B. Singer about Holocaust survivors in post-war New York City. You can find my review on my Club Read thread.

Next up for me will be The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka.

>85 rocketjk: Next up for me will be The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka.

Great choice. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.

>83 rachbxl: I've wondered how accurate the description of an interpreter's life at the Hague is. Kitamura is very good at the slow build-up. To what I'm not sure, but I feel it like an undertow.

>85 rocketjk: I read that; interesting concept but found myself cringing from the blood and destruction tho I know it was realistic. Its also funny with satire about heaven and the hell theu all are in . but it just was a hard road for me

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries was excellent. Now reading To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, an original coming of age story.

>2 teatreetiffany: That book on Migrant Aesthetics sounds right up my alley. I just looked at it on the CUP website. I've read work by all of the authors mentioned in the TOC.I need to get it from the library. I'm reading Julie Otsuka's The Swimmers right now. A classic Canadian novel about the internment of Japanese Canadians is Obasan, by Joy Kogawa. I read it decades ago when it was first published in the US. My first book this year was Chetna Maroo's Booker shortlisted Western Lane, about a British Jain family of 3 tween/teen girls, whose mother has died. The father, youngest daughter, and later, her sisters, become obsessed with the girl's talent at playing squash as a way of avoiding, then transcending their grief. I love Valeria Luiselli's work. Tell Me How it Ends, about her experiences translating for unaccompanied minors seeking asylum is devastating. Aleksander Hemon lived in my Chicago neighborhood for decades, after getting stuck in the US on a visit by the outbreak of war in Bosnia. He was offered a position at Princeton, so he moved a few years ago. I never knew him but we have plenty of mutual friends. I read a lot of books by 1st and 2nd gen immigrant writers, as well as a lot of literature in translation.

I’m reading The Wren the Wren by Anne Enright. It’s been popping up as recommended for me for ages, but I didn’t like the title. Fortunately I thought I’d try it out. It’s a delightful book, full of wonder and very very Irish. I will be sorry to finish it.

>85 rocketjk: Gosh, i love Maali. That book smacks you hard up front. Hang in there. Its heart opens.

>90 TerryMcKenzie: I adored Western Lane. Moving and wonderfully written. And Valeria Luiselli is a hero mine. Welcome to CR. I selfishly hope you will post more about your reading.

>91 kjuliff: very curious here, Kate.

>92 dchaikin: How so, Dan?

>93 kjuliff: curious about he Wren, the Wren. What i’ve read previously seems hard to evaluate and hasn’t gotten me to read it. I would like to know what you think.

>94 dchaikin: I understand. I wasn’t going to read it either for the same reasons. But it kept popping up as recommended and I thought I’d read the first couple of pages. Then I was hooked..

I’ll be reviewing it on my thread.

With a busy and stressful month at work, I needed some comfort reads. I'm reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. I always turn to an Austen reread when I'm particularly stressed and S&S has been reread least recently - back in 2018.

I'm saving that book for my most stressful days, so I also picked up The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey and the beginning grabbed me right away.

For nonfiction, continuing on with David McCullough's The Path Between the Seas, about the formation of the Panama Canal. It's really good but very long and will probably take me a month or so, with other fiction books in between.

>96 japaul22: I loved The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating and, as a bonus, the author is from Maine.

the last of Cadfal books, Brother Cadfaels Penance is a fine ending to this 21 book series. Cadfael leaves his abbbey with out the permission of his abbot, to attend the peace talks in Coventry to try to stop the Anarchy between King Steven and Empress Maud. but he has a more personal reason; in a skirmmish several soldiers were taken and given to others as ransome, and he has reason to believe his son is among them. Peters shows how difficult having peace talks when the two main actors will not budge and no one else will and things havent changed. There is a murder, but Cadfael is more troubled by his leaving the abbey, did he break his vow and can he go back

I know a lot of the history of this time but I was impressed by how much Peters shows us of the workingsduring the peace talks. Id love to know what her sources are; probably be easy to find. I still have a ways to go with it but like all of these books they read quickly and keep your attention Ill come back with the ending, then its on to other tales!

>68 mabith: There is a new-ish (placed last summer) sculpture of Lorraine Hansberry, surrounded by sculptures of empty chairs, placed downtown, near Navy Pier-- (a tourist hell that people who live here avoid, but oh, well.) The chairs invite you to sit with Lorraine, which is lovely. The first chill day last fall, someone put a cardigan on Lorraine.

https://www.wbez.org/arts/2024/09/05/lorraine-hansberry-statue-alison-saar-navy-...

After reading the first of the Rougon-Macquart series in the group read along, I promptly dropped the ball and fell behind. Last night I finally started book two, His Excellency Eugene Rougon, with vague hopes of catching up while I'm only one book behind.

>99 TerryMcKenzie: Lovely concept!

Finished Lucy Hughes-Hallett's doorstopper, The Scapegoat her biography of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, favourite of James I and Charles I, reviewed on my thread. Now focusing on West of Rehoboth by Alexs D Pate.

I have finished reading The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, a cozy mystery. Now I am reading Or noir

My new commute book is The Geek Feminist Revolution.

Finished To a God Unknown by John Steinbeck and needing to start The Angels of Sinkhole County for my book club.

I start Haven today.

Got my ILL requests today - The Lost Spells and Chocolate House Treason. Holy Cow that 2nd one is huge. I can only have them 3 weeks, so will have to supersede other things.

>105 mabith: a curious little Steinbeck, To a God Unknown.

>106 labfs39: That’s one I put aside in my non-reading days. I hope you enjoy it so I can try it again.

>108 dchaikin: Certainly was!

I'm currently reading three books at the same time.

For my at work book on PDF: Victor Hugo's Quatre-vingt treize (Ninety-three)
For my Japanese language book: となり町戦争
For my at home/commute play: Victor Hugo's Ruy Blas

Although I typically don't read two books by the same author so close together, let alone at the same time, one being a historical fiction novel, and the other a play, means they don't get mushed in my head. I'm enjoying both very much as I'm now reaching the conclusion on both. I'm also really enjoying the Japanese read, a yet-to-be-translated science fiction novel that I'm curious to see how it develops as I'm quite hooked right now.

>107 WelshBookworm:
Absolutely loved Chocolate House Treason. Aside from the cracking story, David Fairer really did his research: the geography of London of the time is nailed on, and he took great care that all the dialogue used vocab of the time - he did a fascinating short video for the Ilkley Lit Fest a couple of years ago on the subject. (He's Emeritus Professor of 18thC Poetry at Leeds Uni so should know his stuff). Bias warning: he's in my book group, and we've nattered much about his work!

>112 Willoyd: Very cool! Thanks for the info!

>111 lilisin: Imagining this gives me a head🙈ache. But I suppose having books in different languages would help separate them mentally. I once tried to read the same book in two languages at the same time. The original Spanish and the English translation. I thought it might help my Spanish, but it did y head in.

This afternoon I started reading People from Oetimu early this afternoon, the first book published by Archipelago Books this year, and it's a very intoxicating read so far. It concerns the often brutal history of the divided island of Timor, starting from a battle in the city of Oetimu in West Timor, adjacent to the border with East Timor, in 1998, and going backward in time when West Timor was a Dutch colony and East Timor was under the control of the Estado Novo fascist government of Portugal. I'm already a quarter of the way through it, and I'll almost certainly finish it this weekend.

>114 kjuliff:

Different languages but also different reading spaces helps immensely.
Also, I see reading books at the same time similarly to keeping track of tv series. Growing up, between Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ER, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Smallville, etc. etc, I never once thought it overwhelming to be watching so many series at once. So books are the same. As long as they are different plots, different languages, different reading spaces, I have no trouble separating them in my head.

I recently finished listening to the short, melancholic, and rather unsatisfying novella Last Night at the Lobster.

I woke up in the middle of the night the other night and couldn't get back to sleep and so I read Weird Things Customers Say In Bookshops.

I’ve started East West Street by Philippe Sands. I need to educate myself - sadly I had not even thought about the legal difference between the terms “genocide” and “crimes against humanity”.

>118 rhian_of_oz: How was it? I've heard mixed reviews of that one.

>120 WelshBookworm: It was okay, mildly amusing.

>119 kjuliff: m neither

A friend told me she was going to escape the current moment by diving into a big historical novel and I thought that such a good idea that I immediately began The Fortunes of War: The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning. I'm hoping it will be immersive.

I'm enjoying Colored Television by Danzy Senna. She's married to Percival Everett, who some of you may have heard of. It's always interesting to discover writer couples, although I spent far too much time trying to see the other's influence in whatever novel I'm reading.

I'm still working my way through Identity Unknown by Suzanne Brockmann, which examines the lives of seven women artists who have been largely forgotten. My favorite of them so far is Gertrude Abercrombie, who is certainly less well-known than she should be, but she does have a painting hanging in the AIC and it's right next to Nighthawks by Edward Hopper.

I'm also reading a modern riff on Tender is the Night called Sweet Fury.

>123 RidgewayGirl: The Balkan Trilogy certainly is immersive. I read it a long time ago and it envelopes you in another time and place. I think you would enjoy it.

>123 RidgewayGirl: re Balkan trilogy; oh you are in for a treat , read it during the new baltic wars, its somwhat foggy but remember loving it

Ive been wanting to read Senna;lookig forward to that

>123 RidgewayGirl: >124 kjuliff: >125 cindydavid4:
Good to hear - on my list (and shelf) to read this year!

>119 kjuliff:
One of my best reads in the past few years (Christmas present from my wife) - really powerful. Learned so much from it too.

started the radetzay march and liking it thus far. Always wanted to know about that empire (I knew much more about the Ottaman) keep you posted

>122 cindydavid4: And now it’s so obvious - the difference between the terms “genocide” and “crimes against humanity”. I just never thought of them as different. I can see why certain warmongers want to deny genocide as it is viewed as worse than crimes against humanity. I feel a bit of an idiot, reaching my age and never considering the meaning of these terms.

ETA - I knew both terms meant mass killings but didn’t get why certain people balked at the use of the term ”genocide”.

>119 kjuliff:, >126 Willoyd: East West Street is one of my favourite books from recent years too.

I’m about a quarter of the way through War and Peace, having just started Volume 2. I’m enjoying it immensely, and when I’m not reading my mind keeps going back to it.

I’m also working my way through Riad Sattouff’s glorious series of autobiographical graphic novels, L’Arabe du futur. I’m on the sixth and last now, so am cheered to see that late last year Moi, Fadi, le frère volé came out, Sattouff’s younger brother Fadi’s experience as the child kidnapped by his Syrian from his mother’s home in Brittany and taken to live in Syria, a story already told from the point of view of Sattouff, left behind in Brittany with another brother and their French mother, in volumes 5 and 6 of L’Arabe du futur.

Am a little way into Elizabeth's London by Lisa Picard. Am considering dumping George Sand by Curtis Cate, but am not yet committed to doing that. Don't want to give up on GS, but I am so tempted to jettison it.

Re: The Balkan Trilogy I read the first two books in 2023 and 2024 and plan to read the third part this year sometime.

I've joined the crowd reading James, which is the February book for our community book club.

>131 Jim53: James is well worth the time. Percival has his way.

I’ve just finished Sister Deborah by Scholastique Mukasonga and have begun reading/listening to Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen, which I’m enjoying a lot, especially Susan Lyons’ narration.

I finished People from Oetimu this afternoon, so I'll resume reading The Omni-Americans by Albert Murray. Sometime next week I'll start reading Life Embitters by the Catalan author Josep Pla, a work of ""narrative literature" set during the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939) when Catalunya was an independent state before it fell to the Nationalists following the end of the Spanish Civil War.

I'm still reading The Idiot, which is going to take even longer now that the library took the ebook back and I have to revert to the paperback. So I've also read You Glow in the Dark a collection off stories by a Bolivian author set in stange times. And I am working through The Story of Art without Men, and mentally planning another treasure hunt through the Met Museum.

I finished a book, my first of the year. I’ve been picking up A Month in the Country here and there and finally had time this weekend to focus on it. It’s only 111 pages. Still thinking about it. Meanwhile I’m sort at an unplanned spot of “free” time in January for a week. I’m eyeing The Wild Palms by William Faulkner (he originally had a lovely title for it - If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem)

I finished Quatre-vingt treize so as my next PDF read I've started Zola's Le Reve so that I can stay ahead of the group read for a bit before I definitely fall behind.

I finished The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, Shehan Karunatilaka's 2022 Booker Prize winning novel about violence, horror, love and the afterlife in Sri Lanka. You can find my longer review on my Club Read thread.

Next up for me will be The Drowned World, J.G. Ballard's semi-classic science fiction cautionary tale about global warming, first published in 1962.

Just completed both West of Rehoboth by Alexs d Pate (Tour of the States) and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (Book group read). Or should I say 'finished with', as didn't read the entirety of the latter? I had mixed feelings previously about his books, but this was as flat as a pancake: drearily dull and tedious. The former was a much more rewarding read. 4 stars and (just) 2 stars respectively. Reviews on my thread to follow.

This long weekend coincided with some very cold (but sadly not snowy) weather here, so I finished a few books and began People from Oetimu by Felix Nesi, which was the first book I received since starting a subscription with Archipelago Books. If I begin them immediately after receiving them, I hope to not end the year with a stack of unread books.

>135 ELiz_M: I bought a copy of The Story of Art without Men a few weeks ago and am hoping to get to it soon.

My weekend light read was Mrs Porter Calling.

I've finally gotten a bit of a start on Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire by Judith Herrin.

In California last weekend I picked up a used copy of Horace, The Odes: New Translations by Contemporary edited by J. D. McClatchy. I've been reading bits here and there, and I think I'm ready to acknowledge that I'm actually reading it.

In the middle of The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2024 edited by Hugh Howey. There are some really good stories in here! My favorites so far are "Eye & Tooth" by Rebecca Roanhorse and "Bari and the Resurrection Flower" by Hana Lee.

I finished the flawed, but interesting twist on the true crime perspective Letters to the Purple Satin Killer, now onto the wayward children and more progress on the Japanese lit I got going.

>65 rachbxl: I am just seeing this. I am new at how to. I really enjoyed Olive Again. If you didn’t get to it yet, something exciting to look forward to. I feel such an affinity to Strout and her stories. I am reading Abide with me now and feeling almost sad that it shall be over soon and I will have no more Strout to read. You are reading War and Peace for the second time? That’s quite impressive. I tried to reread about 5 years ago and while I loved every word, I did not finish. I don’t remember why I stopped. Do you read all day and into the night? I often do and in between take care of the quotidian. Sometimes when I can’t wait for my library I buy used books. I need to donate some.

>139 Willoyd: I had the same reaction to Never let me go and that’s just what I did “let him go”

>147 stefepaul: I, too, feel a real affinity for Strout and the world she creates. I had to return Olive, Again to the library unread, though, because War and Peace came along. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of Strout later this year, though (but, like you, not looking forward to not having any left to discover). This is my second attempt at War and Peace, but last time I “only” got about 400 pages in and then left my book somewhere. I was enjoying it and should have just bought another copy, but instead I waited until I got it back, which took ages…and by then the moment was gone and I didn’t pick it up again until now. There are several members of CR who have read it at least twice, though.

Getting ready to start the audiobook of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy as part of the Monthly Author Reads group. Have never read LeCarre or any spy thriller so should be interesting.

Finishing Damon Garcia's book The God Who Riots a view of Christianity close to Liberation Theology.

Reading a few books of poetry Core Samples from the World, Forest of Noise, Watermelon, Instructions for Traveling West which I'll probably read a little at a time.

The next novel will be Kaveh Akbar's Martyr!

>149 rachbxl: I am 68 and probably read war and peace over 30 years ago. I am a retired teacher and we traveled a lot during the summers. That’s when I did my monster reading novels. I imagine you will love the story. If you want keep us posted. I have less than 100 pages of Abide and it’s really making me sad. I feel like I need a new author like Strout. I have loved reading Ferrante, Cusk, and Marilynne Robinson. I enjoyed Camille Bordas (only 2 of her books are translated to English) I liked the Rooney books I read. I forget what I have on hold at the library but hopefully they will engulf me in the way I relish. Nice to be able to share! Thanks

I needed a comfort read, so of course I turned to Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility is my least recent reread, so that's the one I'm reading.

I'm also reading Mademoiselle Chanel, a fun historical fiction novel about Coco Chanel.

Almost finished with the radetzky march Kate turned me on to the author, and I am loving his humor and cynicism in this book. Reading for the RG quarter theme "Counties that disappeared". Dealing here with the country of Galacia that was part of the Austrian Hungarian Empire. its a time and place I know little about but alwas wanted to know more. Thankyou for this BB, Ill be readng more of him

Starting the invention of clouds about a meteorologist, interested in the clouds and naming them. I love whatching cclouds and thought this would work for this month RTT challenge "look to the heavens'

>151 stefepaul: “ I feel like I need a new author like Strout. I have loved reading Ferrante, Cusk, and Marilynne Robinson”

I would love to know what you’re reading now. Those are four terrific authors. You might also consider Ali Smith and/or Deborah Levy.

Currently midway through So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell. Resented having to put it down last night, so bet on finishing it this evening. It's my book for Illinois in the Tour of the US.

I finished The Drowned World, J.G. Ballard's 1962 novel about the effects giant, prolonged solar flares that blow the top layer of the earth's atmosphere away and lead to global warming on a massive scale. What Ballard is most interested in is the effect the changes have on his characters' psyches. It's all quite effective. My longer review can by found on my Club Read thread.

Next up for me will be Ill Wind, a noir novel set in mid-1950s Alabama, written by Alabama native W.L. Heath.

I discovered Marilynne Robinsonlistening to her interview with Obama. I was hooked; Loved Gilead as well as the rest in that series home lila jack had some problems with the latter, unlike other reviewers I enjoyed the 80 pages of dialogue. I did have to question motives and cant quite understand Della's choice. but it made for a very strong ending that brings us back to hom

I started Ex-Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader today.

I’m now rereading Sister Deborah and am glancing through The Measure by Nikki Erlick, my in-person book club’s February reading.

I got a fair way through East West Street: On the Origins of "Genocide" and "Crimes Against Humanity" and have a third left to read. But I need some short stories to take a break . I tried Green Frog by Gina Chung which I have tried before but don’t seem to get it. It’s he ne said quoi eludes me. So I’m currently reading the newly translated Dead End Memories by Banana Yoshimoto. Hopefully I’ll be able to stick at this collection of short stories before returning to East West Street which is extremely good but a bit depressing .

>151 stefepaul: Interesting that you mention Marilynne Robinson as someone else you’ve enjoyed -I haven’t read any of her books, but on reading Kay (Ridgewaygirl)’s review of Housekeeping a few days ago, I started to think that maybe Robison is where I’ll go when I run out of Strout.

I’m well into War and Peace now, about 400 pages in (part 2 of volume 2), and even though most days I don’t read more than 30 pages or so, it occupies my every waking moment, which is rather lovely. It’s ages since a book got under my skin like this. I’m reading it alongside Yiyun Li’s Tolstoy Together (not recommended) and Give War and Peace a Chance by Andrew Kaufman, which I’m getting much more out of. Thanks to recommendations on my thread I also just started Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia by Orlando Figes, which I think is going to be a marvelous companion book to W&P (my favourite detail so far: one estate had a band made up of serfs who weren’t musicians but had each been taught to play one note, to save on training them properly. They just had to each play “their” note at the right time…)

I'm onto a lovely mix of non-fiction with fiction - George Saunders' A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading and Life. George Saunders takes the class he teaches at Syracuse University to the page, teaching us readers what makes seven Russian stories by the greatest masterpieces of writing.

I've finished Skylark lovely, hopeful and sad. Next up will either be Night Boat to Tangier or The Time of Indifference.

>163 ELiz_M: Night Boat to Tangier is my favorite Kevin Barry books. I could not put it down. It’s so beautifully written. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

>162 AlisonY: a wonderful book by Saunders and his Russians. Enjoy!

>161 rachbxl: re house keeping, it helps to relise it is not in the gilead series and I found it difficult to hold my attention. but its worth it

I finished The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt - a kind of massive read, and my main goal for this month. I've started The Buccaneers, Edith Wharton's last and unfinished novel (from 1937)

I normally read. More Online books Or even the audiobooks to get them over when I'm not able to sit down and read. But recently I started reading. A physical book ashes to ashes by Jenny han And sloahn Vivian. I'm really liking it so far. It's a pretty good book and I highly recommend it. For anyone who's interested in romance. And grief books

>166 cindydavid4: it is not in the Gilead series. Thanks for that - I’ve picked Housekeeping off the TBR shelves a couple of times but been out off because I wasn’t sure if it was Gilead, and if so where in the order, though I’ve never been desperate enough to know to ask here or look it up.

Completed the aduiobook for The Wager which is a masterclass in historical narrative, and the audiobook elevates the experience with Dion Graham’s stellar narration. Tales of survival, naval history, or human drama, as an audiobook it is unforgettable and left me pondering the fragility of civilization and the enduring power of the human spirit on a long drive back from a site.

>160 kjuliff: And I'm reading a sequel of sorts to East West Street. In East West Street, the focus is on Sand's European family who were almost all killed in the Holocaust. In The Ratline, Sands meets the son of the Nazi governor of the town in which his relatives lived. The son is convinced that his father was a "good" Nazi. Sands investigates.

Still reading History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and at this rate it will likely be a couple of years (or more) before I'm finished. (Probably should stop mentioning it. You-all might start throwing virtual rocks at me.) Have started Elizabeth's London: Everyday Life in Elizabethan London and also Jo Nesbo's Cockroaches as my series fiction read. Expecting to get Elena Knows from the Commonwealth Catalog soon-ish.

I finished Ex Libris, a delightful little book of essays, and am starting A Kid for Two Farthings by Wolf Mankowitz.

I am reading Contempt by Alberto Moravia - it’s from his middle period, circa 1950 and so far is an interesting read.

>173 labfs39:
A long standing favourite!

Have just started The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. Promising!

>172 Fourpawz2: i’ve thought about reading Decline and Fall many times. But I drifted mindsets a little. Please share updates on your thread!

>173 labfs39: >175 Willoyd: that Fadiman is special. Also it reminds me of rebeccanyc

>169 rachbxl: no need to feel desparate. anyone around he would be glad to guide you! the order is Gilead Home, Lila and Jack enjoy!

>176 dchaikin: - I will do that, Dan

>178 cindydavid4: Yes, I would certainly have asked here if I'd needed to - CR is great for that - but I'd never got beyond idle wondering about how Housekeeping fitted in (which I now know - thanks).

Finished Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age, which was excellent and especially interesting for a reader of the Amelia Peabody mystery series as you can see much of the inspiration for Amelia.

Now I've started The Gambling Century: Commercial Gaming in Britain from Restoration to Regency.

I love all this Robinson love! I've moved Home to where it's very visible, so I won't forget about it. I can't move it to the official book pile because of height restrictions -- it gets unstable at a certain point.

I'm really enjoying Olivia Manning's The Balkan Trilogy. I'll report on each book as I finish it instead of waiting until I've completed all three. I'm also reading Someone Like Us by Dinaw Mengestu, which weaves back and forth as the story is told. People from Oetimu by Felix Nesi continues to surprise me and I've started The Tokyo Suite by Giovana Madalosso.

I'm bouncing between This Book is Overdue! which is a (15 year old) analysis of technology in libraries and 1491 which re-analyzes what we know about the early history of the Americas. I've also been listening to an audio book version of The Fellowship of the Ring, but I haven't been as interested in it the past few days.

>162 AlisonY: I read that as part of my college thesis! I thought it was a nice analysis of short stories. And I'll never forget how horrified one of my friends looked when she saw me highlight a really good quote ;).

>183 b.ray: I'm finding the George Saunders book interesting, but I'm needing to intersperse it with other reading as I want to give it my full attention when I'm reading it and I'm not always in the mood.

I've another two books on the go. For a bit of light relief from George Saunders' analysis on Russian stories, I'm reading Went to London, Took the Dog - The Diary of a 60-Year-Old Runaway by Nina Stibbe. I'm also listening to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.

>184 AlisonY: It took me a long time to read the Saunders book and it's now a battered object, full of underlining, notes in the margins and post-its. It's made for slow reading.

I’ve finished my reread of Sister Deborah and am reflecting on my review—this one will be hard to do without spoilers. And I’m now reading and listening to the Juliet Stevenson AB of The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard.

>186 dianelouise100: I’ll be interested to read what you think about The Transit of Venus . It made a big splash when it came out in Australia years ago, but I could never see what people were raving about. I’m pretty sure it’s an excellent read and that I was missing something.

>182 RidgewayGirl: Home was very moving for me, and is what led me to reread Gilead, which i had found only ok. On re-reading i loved it.

>183 b.ray: I’m interested in 1491. Especially after recently finishing Native Nations on audio.

>189 dchaikin: I'm liking it so far. It does a good job of balancing many archaeological perspectives and all of the science has been very understandable.

I finished Ill Wind, a novel, published in 1957, the politics and personalities of a small Alabama town in the 1950s, by local novelist W.L. Heath. I found it engaging and well written, and an interesting description of the time and place. Next up for me will be Lucia's Progress, also published as The Worshipful Lucia, the fifth of the six Mapp and Lucia comedies written by E.F. Benson about small town English upper middle class between the World Wars. I've been reading through the series a book every year or so and I'll be sad when I reach the end.

>154 dchaikin: I am reading Andre Aciman’s Roman Year recommended by my hairdresser. She’s smart as a whip and we have great book (and life) conversations. She knows I love Rome. I am about halfway through and enjoying and have stuff lined up but this Strout thing is a bit nuts. It’s like a best friend moved away. Hey thanks for asking. I am checking out your recommendations now

I am reading The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz, which is the sequel to The Plot which I read a few months ago and was very entertained by.

I'm also really focusing in on The Path Between the Seas, David McCullough's book about the building of the Panama Canal. I started it a few weeks ago and have only read about 200 pages, but I should have more focused reading time in the next couple weeks to spend on it.

Finished Stone Blind on the drive to Rapid City. It's hilarious and I loved it. Highly recommend the audiobook narrated by the author. Not a lot to do here, since Mom is mostly sleeping. Got to finish reading The Winter's Tale since it is an ILL and can't be renewed and is due in a few days.

>194 WelshBookworm: hilarious? I loved the book, I found it satirical if thats the right word. she certainly is good at putting the womens story up front and center. but didn't find it LOL funny, but as always YMMV

>192 stefepaul: we visited Rome for the 1st time in 2023 for like two days. I loved what i saw. Enjoy the book.

>196 dchaikin: such a miraculous place. If you can go back! I looked up the authors you recommended. Look perfect for me. Thanks again! Ciao

>197 stefepaul: you’re welcome. Rome - maybe again some day

I started The Aloha Shirt on the weekend, and also finally started Feersum Endjinn which I need to finish by Tuesday for bookclub.

Today I started reading Der Buchhändler aus Kabul by Asne Seierstad. As the main character is Afghan-Tajik, I read in parallel about Tadschikistan in Sowjetistan by Erika Fatland to try to better understand the relationships between the different human groups and neighboring nations in this very complicated part of the world.

>158 labfs39: That's one of my favorite books! I hope you enjoy it. I used to keep two copies - one to lend out and one to keep in case the loanee didn't return the book.

I finished The Radium Girls by Kate Moore and Persuasion, but abandoned The Comanche Kid by James Robert Daniels (I didn't like the protagonist enough to care about what happens to her - makes me wonder if men should write 16-year-old girls). I'm still slogging through Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky, though I've come close to abandoning it a couple of times.

I've begun Finding Fibonacci by Kieth Devlin (enjoying it so far) and The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger.

>200 BuecherDrache: I read Der Buchhändler aus Kabul six years ago and liked it very much. Enjoy it.

>200 BuecherDrache: Sovietstan is a fascinating book and a few years after reading it, I am once again mixing up those countries.

>198 dchaikin: I have a bunch of new books lined up and am just rushing to finish Roman Year which I am finding a bit tedious after all. I don't normally read memoirs (especially of people whom which I have no prior interest) I have about 100 pages left so won't give up now but am eager to be done. I still love Rome, not this book so much.

>205 stefepaul: bummer! I love good memoirs, and don’t read them enough. But i never want tedious. What new books?

I finished A Kid for Two Farthings and started an Early Reviewer book called Tunnel of Hope: Escape from the Novogrudok Forced Labor Camp. I've read the introductory materials and skimmed the appendices, now I'm reading the mini-bios of all the escapees (which comprises the majority of the book).

>201 janoorani24: I completely understand wanting to share Ex Libris, but not wanting to lose your only copy. It was a very warm and fuzzy read.

>206 dchaikin: This is an incomplete list from the top of my head, went to my thrift store and found an Amy Tan book and Fried Green Tomatoes. And I ordered used books Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller and Eli’s Batuman’s, The Idiot (interesting that titles can’t be copywrighted) Then I went to the library and took out August Blue and another book by Deborah Levy and a cs Lewis novel with the word Planet in the title. And then couldn’t resist a freebie there from the Heroes series, Theseus which is clearly for a younger crowd. I don’t think my granddaughter is quite ready for it but I love anything Greek Myth so. Sorry this list is choppy but my room is dark. Trying to figure out how to save your library as interesting but still getting the tech piece of this.

>204 RidgewayGirl: Yes, I like it too a lot. And to my shame, I must admit that just few months after reading the book, I mix up those countries!

>203 Ameise1: I surely do. :) I was very impressed by Sultan Kahn's efforts to save not only the books, but also the customs and history of his beloved country.

By the way, do you know books about customs, festivities and traditions in Afghanistan? I hope they didn't go completely lost in the last decades. That would be an immense loss for human history.

>210 BuecherDrache: If you are looking at Afghanistan, I Am the Beggar of the World: Landays from Contemporary Afghanistan is an interesting book to look at (even if one does not like poetry).

>211 AnnieMod: Sounds hard and very impressive. Thanks for the recommendation.

I started a new audiobook today. I finished Our Evenings yesterday. I liked it, loved the writing, felt a little tired by the slow pace. Now i’ve begun Things I Don’t Want to Know, a kind of memoir by Deborah Levy, who grew in South Africa, her father imprisoned for speaking against Apartheid.

Reading too many things at once right now, but nevertheless I needed something different for bedtime reading so last night I started The Lady Flirts With Death. It fits the current RTT quarterly theme.

>213 dchaikin: That's a book by Deborah Levy I hadn't heard of, and I didn't know about her background either. Looking forward to seeing what you think of it.

ETA that I myself am still reading War and Peace, no surprise. I'm 42% of the way through, my Kindle tells me, slowly approaching Volume 3. I'm currently much taken with the thought that it's all over the place and I have no idea where it's going, yet far from infuriating me as it would normally, it's all part of its charm, and part of its realism. Life is all over the place and unpredictable.

I'm enjoying—if that's the right word—Things You May Find in My Ear: Poems from Gaza by Mosab Abu Toha, which @markon and @avaland spoke highly of, and with good reason. I'm also still reading The Omni-Americans by Albert Murray, and Life Embitters by Josep Pla.

I’ve added another novel to my list of current reads: The Names of Things, John Colman Wood’s debut. So far, it reads very well and it will probably be the next book I’ll finish.

This afternoon I finished reading Der Buchhändler von Kabul.

That was such an intensive and deep dive in the afghan world! I have the feeling, head and soul still remain there, under the afghan sun and dust, between the members of the Kahn family, their plans, desires, dreams and hopes, catched in the social constraints. And always exposed and dependent on the continuous political and military changes of their country. What a life! And what a writter! 👏👏

Finished Elspeth Barker's collection of essays and short stories Notes from the Henhouse. Love her writing, but the stories tend to the same (alongside her book, O Caledonia), and the essays were for me a bit of a curate's egg, some glorious and/or quirky, others not quite hitting the mark for me as a set. 3 stars.
Moving on to a reread of Orbital (Samantha Harvey) for one of my book groups. I gave it 6 stars last time, and am looking forward to exploring it further.

Just finished the wry and wonderful Barbara Isn't Dying, another solid read from Alina Bronsky.

Picked Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell from the Classics TBR shelf this morning. Really liked Chapter One, but of course it is waaaay too early to know if that will carry forward.

I'm almost finished The Great Fortune, the first book in Olivia Manning's The Balkan Trilogy. I'm really enjoying it, despite the amount of xenophobia and broad racial stereotyping by the British.

I've just picked up Anne Tyler's newest novel, Three Days in June, which looks to be a breath of calming air which I kind of need right now.

I'm also reading The Book Censor's Library by Kuwaiti author Bothayna Al-Essa, which is off to a good start. And Identity Unknown by Suzanne Brockmann continues to be fascinating.

I’m so confused with all the books I have started, I no longer know what ime reading :{

>222 RidgewayGirl: breathe of calming air - I've tried Byatt. Now Wharton and Woolf

I started To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf today.

>222 RidgewayGirl:
Fairly typical of Brits at the time (and quite a few today). Have just bought Balkan trilogy, so interested to read how this goes.
Loved Book Censor's Library, unusual for such a dystopian novel! Hope it continues to work for you.

>222 RidgewayGirl: The Book censor's library is at my wish to read list.
Please let me know how you like it. :)

>223 kjuliff: Does that ever sound familiar! Maybe I’ll eventually finish one

>222 RidgewayGirl: I’ve often been tempted by The Balkan Trilogy, so I’m glad to see your comments.

>227 dianelouise100: I actually finished one! V short. V lifgt. I even reviewed it. Now I’m back to nothing.

I finished Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky (haven't yet decided how I'll review it), and began Cinder by Marissa Meyer. I don't seem to be able to escape dystopian science fiction yet, but I also love fairy tales retold.

I am enamored with the Italian classic The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni. I'm having so much fun. Anybody who likes The Count of Monte Cristo and Zorro will love this.

>231 lilisin: Good to hear, as it has been on my TBR forever.

I just finished an ARC of Threads of Empire by Dorothy Armstrong - fascinating look at history through the lens of several different carpets. How the carpets were made, and who made them (as far as we can figure out, which isn't much); what was going on, and why those carpets were made the way they were; what happened to them, how they became (relatively) famous...Most of her subjects are in various museums, and how they got to the museums is a saga in itself for several of them.

I learned a lot about stuff I didn't know anything about, and also about things where I knew one angle and now I saw it from a totally different angle - the collapse of the Mughal Empire as illustrated by rugs, with a casual mention that one major trigger was the Portuguese finding another route to India and China for trade in spices (and other things, including rugs). I read The Taste of Conquest several years ago, which was all about the spice trade; I knew about that event from that angle, now I know more.

It'll be out - I think June this year. Worth reading - I intend to get it when it comes out, the ARC didn't have any photos or images in it.